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Drawn Trafalgar

#a3c4f6
Notes

Drawn Trafalgar (#A3C4F6) is a soft azure with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (216°, 82%, 80%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary amber. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#a3c4f6
RGB
rgb(163, 196, 246)
HSL
hsl(216, 82%, 80%)
HWB
hwb(216 64% 4%)
OKLCH
oklch(81.4% 0.080 258.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6646 0.7648 0.9478)
HSV
hsv(216, 34%, 96%)
LAB
lab(78.41% 0.60 -28.24)
LCH
lch(78.41% 28.24 271.21)
CMYK
cmyk(34%, 20%, 0%, 4%)

Etymology

Drawn
adjective

Old English dragan, to draw — past-participle of draw. As a color modifier, drawn implies a clear-and-line-and-mark quality, the crisp color of Old-Master-and-Modernist hand-drawn studio-and-life-class observational-drawing graphite-and-charcoal lines. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and drafted in usage.

Trafalgar
noun

The Cape Trafalgar headland off southern Spain — site of the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar (Nelson's decisive naval victory over Napoleon's fleet). Trafalgar color refers to the deep blue of HMS Victory's preserved hull paint at Portsmouth: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of period-correct marine paint.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#a3c4f6
Original
#b3c6f8
Protanopia
#aabef5
Deuteranopia
#8acfd5
Tritanopia
#c1c1c1
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon White
1.78:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
11.78:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##A3C4F6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6646 0.7648 0.9478)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.080

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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